Just want to let everyone know about this awesome windowfarm remote collaboration that will bring a custom-designed windowfarm made of Helsinki local materials and plants to the Kiasma Contemporary Art Museum in conjunction with the Pixelache Festival. The project will generate local “how-tos” as well that make it possible for Scandinavians to “grow [herbs, edible and medicinal plants] yourself, over the dark winter months.”

This is a wide collaboration involving contributions from Helsinki local artists, biologists, the botanical gardens, an electronic arts festival and industrial hydroponics facilities. The project is being supported by Kultur Kontakt Nord/Nordic Culture Point.

The ‘Herbologies/Foraging Networks’ programme of events, focused in Helsinki (Finland) and Kurzeme region of Latvia, explores the cultural traditions and knowledge of herbs, edible and medicinal plants, within the contemporary context of online networks, open information-sharing, biological and hydroponic technologies. The traditions of finding and knowing about wild food in the local Nordic environment are slipping away from the current generation. How can one attract their attention: With books, online maps, workshops, mobile-guided tours, open-source information or DNA code? Or learn how to grow them yourself, over the dark winter months? The Pixelache Festival events introduce the different meeting points between the three collaborating partners, include presentations by international artists and Finnish botanical experts; workshops sharing that knowledge with the public in Botanical Garden of Helsinki; a round-table discussion about foraging in the urban context; a manifestation of the ‘WindowFarms’ project by Britta Riley and Rebecca Bray(US) that will be built and exhibited in the Takaikkuna of Kiasma, the Museum of contemporary art of Helsinki.”

Andrew Paterson, directing the Helsinki work on the project, reports on current progress, “I have been incubating seeds in rockwool cubes for my home system, so has Mikko with many more as tests.. However, importantly, we got confirmation recently that the Botanical museum will incubate the seeds for the Kiasma installation & have a list of plants already from the different Herbologies workshop persons. On tuesday this week we meet the botanical museum director & gardener.”